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Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

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Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#361

Post by whitepoplar »

blatzguzzler wrote: post #358
paulette449 wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to have to ask this but how do you manage healthcare being a solo s-corp? I was under the impression this could only be done through a company if two unrelated family members owned the company? The only other alternative is "Obamacare"? I could be totally wrong.

Speaking as someone who has been mostly self-employed since about 2002, Obamacare is a godsend. Massively better than the old individual "underwriting" system that basically made it impossible to get coverage. Yes, health insurance is expensive, but you may be amazed that the ACA marketplace plans frequently cost less than employer plans with better market protections. The only way to do health insurance nowadays is…

Are you able to purchase a PPO plan in your state?

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#362

Post by ryanwaggoner »

philip1209 wrote: post #2

I've been self-employed for the last ~18 months. In the past I started two VC-backed startups, then was a PM at some later-stage companies before returning to entrepreneurship. This time around, I'm building a solo "digital product studio" [1] instead of a startup. So, I'm staying one person, haven't raised money, and have multiple revenue-generating products. Product revenue doesn't cover my costs yet, so I do occas…

I thought NYC didn’t recognize the S-corp, so you end up paying the corporate tax rate. Has that changed?

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#363

Post by twojobsoneboss »

XCSme wrote: post #346
jmduke wrote: post #194

Self-employed, running https://buttondown.email as a solo founder. (My day generally looks like — 30% engineering, 40% onboarding + support, 10% marketing, 20% operations.) It was a profitable nights-and-weekends project from 2017—2022; took it full-time in 2022. I think the thing that I would say about self-employment is that people understate the day-to-day flexibility and overstate the month-to-month flexibility.…

> people understate the day-to-day flexibility and overstate the month-to-month flexibility I completely agree! Somehow every day feels like you are free to do what you want, even take it off, but in the long-term it feels like you never really have free time at all, because your mind is always thinking about the business or feeling guilty for the time off, which could be spent to further improve the product.

Many 9-5ers minds are always thinking of how to escape anyways, so at least you have something tangible to think about if you already have that business

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#364

Post by jamesmunns »

stevenhuang wrote: post #334
jamesmunns wrote: post #20

I am for a couple years now. I do consulting work [1] around Rust/Embedded Systems/Systems Engineering, usually helping teams that are either kicking off a project (so helping with planning, scoping, and backfilling knowledge gaps), or people who want help building a proof of concept (so: just build it for me asap) for existing companies exploring new ideas or for startups that are working on demos for investors, etc…

Just found out about your podcast and I quite enjoyed learning how esp-idf came about. Great content! > James talks with Scott Mabin about how he joined the Espressif team and got involved in embedded Rust, the working culture in chip manufacturing companies and preferences about designing and building mechanical keyboards. https://onevariable.com/blog/cwj-ep016-scott-mabin/

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#365

Post by XCSme »

twojobsoneboss wrote: post #363
XCSme wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people understate the day-to-day flexibility and overstate the month-to-month flexibility I completely agree! Somehow every day feels like you are free to do what you want, even take it off, but in the long-term it feels like you never really have free time at all, because your mind is always thinking about the business or feeling guilty for the time off, which could be spent to further improve the product.

Many 9-5ers minds are always thinking of how to escape anyways, so at least you have something tangible to think about if you already have that business

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy thinking about how to improve my product, new marketing ideas etc., the issue is more how it affects the rest of your life, where your attention on other aspects of life might be diluted, as a result maybe you will spend less time thinking, for example, about what nice thing you could do for your partner.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#366

Post by jasondigitized »

primax wrote: post #350

I am at the moment due to being in a bit of an odd situation. I've been hit by layoffs in tech twice in the past 2 years. Once due to the consultancy I was working in selling, and all non-billable roles being terminated as a part of the sale. Then I joined a mid-sized startup as a head of engineering, and it turned out their remote work policies were bogus and they wanted me in the office all the time, and so they en…

What fractional / moonlighting sites are you referring to?

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#368

Post by takkatakka »

sebiw wrote: post #341
takkatakka wrote: post #307

Self-employed running https://bankstatement2csv.com Like the url implies, it's a pdf bank statement to csv converter. What Rob Walling from microconf would call a 'step 1 business'. I quit my job in December to work on it full time. It doesn't pay the bills yet (current MRR $590/month), but it is slowly growing! Little bit of a race to see if I can pay my bills with it before I run out of runway.

Nice! What did you do in terms of marketing to get to ~$600 MRR?

I've tried a variety of things (LinkedIn Ads, Reddit Ads, Google Ads, SEO, responding to relevant reddit questions). Most of the paying customers come from google ads, but a few have come from my reddit comments.

The reddit comments are pretty direct, like, the poster is asking about how to convert pdf bank statements to csv and I provide a link w/ full transparency that I'm the developer.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#369

Post by benbojangles »

Me! Since about 2019 I started designing and selling circuit boards among other things. I came from nothing,no funding support, just investing a few hundred dollars here and there and applying my own beliefs. I am forever grateful and won't take it for granted. I get to work from home, be my own boss, oversse everything, turn a good profit, build my savings, have my food delivered to my door, and workout using peloton. Everything is beautiful and I don't complain. I am able to offer support and advice to others in a much more positive manner and inspire people who want to give it a shot.Things which have changed perspective to me include reading job postings and realising how different i was towards them to how i am now, how upset people become when i discuss with them that i am successfully working for myself at home, how i feel knowing i can buy expensive things if i want to but i dont wish to - the feeling alone is often enough, i don't travel as much both in daily life or holidays because i am low stress and comfortable - my life is a holiday everyday. I have to remind myself recently to look ahead to new ideas and not to rest on what i do forever but maybe if im lucky i could.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are self employed?

#370

Post by ringofchaos »

smiths1999 wrote: post #309
unmole wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is in India.

I apologize if this is a stupid question but why wouldn't everyone be investing in India with these returns being standard? In the US we would assume a conservative rate of 7%

When adjusted for usd returns might not be that great. Indian currency have been depreciating a lot against usd.

On the other hand my own portfolio has a mutual fund that invest in US stocks for more diversification.

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